Hidden Wealth Luck
In a semi-basement where even sunlight barely reached, filled with the musty smell of mold and thick dampness, Hwang Jin-woo opened his eyes. As always, he stared blankly at the yellowed ceiling before reaching for the alarm clock beside his spread-out blanket.
"...Five."
It was 5 a.m. With classes at eleven, he needed to start preparing now. He rose, folded the blanket, and stepped into the small bathroom carrying the ever-present weight of exhaustion.
Shaaaaa...
It's cold.
The bathroom had neither tub nor sink—only a toilet and a hose. Hwang Jin-woo turned the faucet and squatted in his familiar posture, washing his red hair with icy water. He had long given up on warm water; now he was simply grateful the tap worked at all.
After a quick wash, he sprayed deodorant on clothes that hadn't seen a laundry in days.
I really should drop these at the cleaners.
Every convenience at Romance Academy was absurdly luxurious. Even the laundry service offered premium dry-cleaning packages that blew his budget out of the water. The same went for housing. This semi-basement unit, scraped together at the farthest edge of the outskirts with a student discount, still cost over two million won a month.
Even without tuition...
Romance Academy was unique in that it charged no tuition. Students simply had to provide everything else themselves. The cost of living here—far higher than back in the Unified Korean Empire—left Hwang Jin-woo perpetually squeezed.
It had only been a little over a month. Four more years of this stretched ahead. Worries and anxieties flooded in.
"...Let's head out."
He opened the mini-fridge and grabbed the potatoes he had boiled the night before. Around 5:10 a.m. The sun rose early in a floating city. Biting into a potato, Hwang Jin-woo broke into a run and soon reached the nearby airport.
It was the largest in the city, operated by the imperial family of the Unified Korean Empire. But he wasn't heading for the glittering main terminal. He slipped around back to the shadowed area still hidden behind the buildings.
Familiarly accepting his work uniform, he greeted the middle-aged man already on duty since before dawn.
"Good morning, foreman!"
"Ah, Jin-woo my boy. Always working hard. Today's load runs from there to there."
"Yes sir!"
With no time to waste, he immediately set upon the stacked cargo. The academy airport received not only passengers but every kind of supply and package imaginable. Hwang Jin-woo's job was to deliver those parcels and foodstuffs.
"Huff... huff..."
Combat-oriented classes would have handled this easily, but his own job relied on his head rather than his body. Sometimes he caught himself fantasizing how much simpler life would be as a Fighter or Swordsman instead of a Mage.
Still, he always ended those thoughts by reminding himself how blessed he was to be a Job Holder at all. Without that status he would never have received extra allowances, never entered Romance Academy, and never had any hope of realizing his dream of becoming rich.
"Delivery!"
"Oh, thank you."
"Delivery...!"
"Five floors? You've worked hard."
"Delivery!"
"Student, that residence is currently unoccupied. You'll need to return later."
"...Understood."
From five-thirty until ten in the morning he moved without rest—delivering, delivering, delivering. When hunger struck he bit into a cold potato. When thirsty he drank from a plastic bottle.
With only a firm resolution to study telekinetic magic as soon as possible, Hwang Jin-woo finished his quota and approached the foreman.
"Foreman, all done."
"As expected from a Job Holder, even if you're still a student. Ordinary folks like us couldn't dream of moving this much. Here's today's pay."
"Thank you!"
Two, three, five, ten, twenty, thirty. Roughly five hours of work for three hundred thousand won. Far more than the same loading work paid outside the academy. Of course, high prices meant high expenses, so the amount left over was about the same. Still, he couldn't stop the smile that broke across his face every time he received the money.
"Jin-woo, didn't you say you were aiming for a scholarship?"
"Yes. I'll definitely get one."
"I believe you can. Oh, and here's a bonus. You've always worked so diligently—I wanted to give you a little extra."
"Thank you so much!!"
Three hundred thousand in wages plus a two-hundred-thousand-won bonus...! At this rate he could treat himself to chicken for the first time in ages.
"…………."
"Jin-woo?"
"Ah, it's nothing. Thank you again, foreman!"
"Don't mention it. See you tomorrow."
"Yes!"
The moment he received the bonus, yesterday's nonsense about wealth luck flashed through his mind, but he quickly brushed it aside.
Wealth luck? Hidden? Just empty words.
He had been surprised the fortune teller knew his name and circumstances, but the claim that wealth luck would come his way was another matter entirely.
Orphaned and abandoned in the slums, he had done every dirty job imaginable until the age of twenty, desperately scraping together money. His life had been the very opposite of luck or fortune. The one thing he could take pride in was that he had never turned to crime.
Even after finally entering the Romance Academy he had dreamed of, he lived in a semi-basement and did loading work. And now this talk of wealth luck?
Like I thought, fortune telling is just a scam.
He had heard all the rumors about the fortune teller Namgung Min. The first fortune teller admitted to the academy. Special class. Outstanding leadership. Uncannily accurate readings. Connections to powerful figures like the imperial princess and great tycoons.
From any angle, he was someone a lower-class person like Hwang Jin-woo could never hope to approach. He had felt no interest in the man's fortune telling either. After all, they lived in different worlds.
Which makes this... an opportunity.
The person who had approached him while he was doing deliveries as usual.
Go to the fortune-telling shop, act like a thug, threaten him, and spread bad reviews?
Ten million won just for that?
He hadn't even known Namgung Min ran a fortune-telling shop, and Hwang Jin-woo had never done anything thuggish in his life. The offer had been so out of nowhere it felt suspicious. But the moment he saw the five million won advance payment he had accepted without hesitation. He had even dyed his hair red to look the part.
Afterward he gathered two friends in similar situations, and together they studied how real thugs behaved. Honestly, he felt no malice toward Namgung Min—in fact he felt sorry. But the man was rich and lived well.
This is my one and only chance.
So please endure it. It's not like they're asking me to actually hit you. Just some threats and bad reviews and it's over.
It's because you spout nonsense like wealth luck that you got targeted.
Well, he had received a bonus today. Maybe there really was such a thing as wealth luck?
With a wry laugh, Hwang Jin-woo headed back to the semi-basement to wash off his sweat-soaked body.
Then—
Flutter.
"...Hm?"
A single flyer carried by the wind caught his eye.
"Eggs and ramen at half price...!"
Was this real? Half-price eggs and ramen?
Even if it made him a little late for class, he couldn't miss this. Looking around, he noticed an unusual number of the same flyers nearby. He snatched one up and read it, then sprinted toward the indicated location. The mart was already packed with people.
I have to buy them no matter what!
Steel in his heart, Hwang Jin-woo stepped inside the store.
Pop!
Pop pop!
"...Huh?"
"Congratulations! You are our ten-thousandth customer! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!"
"Me?"
"Yes! Please accept this gift certificate from Arthur Department Store!"
"Wh-what?!"
Cheers erupted. The fanfare that exploded the moment he walked in. Staff members surrounding him and applauding. A one-million-won gift certificate placed before his eyes. Even the other customers offered their congratulations on his good fortune.
And the person at the center of it all—Hwang Jin-woo—could only say,
"...Thank you!"
Tears welled up at what felt like the first stroke of luck in his entire life. Clutching the Arthur Department Store gift certificate and an armful of discounted eggs and ramen, he left the mart in a daze.
For a second he wondered if it was a dream, but the heavily laden shopping basket in both hands proved it was real.
Me, of all people... getting luck like this.
...No way.
The words he had dismissed as nonsense only moments ago were beginning to settle in his chest. The message that, in truth, he wasn't unlucky. That he possessed wealth luck. Who could possibly hate hearing that? Of course he wanted to believe it was real. Only his long years of poverty and harsh reality had kept him from accepting it.
Right. Let's just get to class.
He didn't want to cling to the hope of wealth luck only to lose even that. After carefully storing the ramen, eggs, and gift certificate in his semi-basement, he prepared for school. Shouldering his secondhand magic textbook and ragged bag, he headed for the academy and soon ran into a friend in the same situation.
"Jin-woo!"
"Kaede."
He walked alongside Sasaki Kaede, who had dyed her black hair blonde to look like a thug just as he had. She was the younger sister of the famous Japanese swordsman Sasaki Ito. But after falling out with her family she had run away and now lived alone, leaving her in similarly dire straits.
"Jin-woo, are we still going after class today...?"
"...Have to. I don't feel good about it either, but money is money."
"Yeah... I know."
Neither Hwang Jin-woo nor Sasaki Kaede enjoyed acting like thugs. Harassing Namgung Min, someone they didn't even know, weighed on their consciences. But reality was simply too harsh to allow them the luxury of refusal.
"Ah, there's Kaite!"
"Kaite!"
"...Yeah."
Once they passed through the academy gates, a large male student who had been waiting joined them. Kaite Blackwood. Despite his intimidating size and fierce face, he was actually timid and kind-hearted. When the three of them gathered—each living in poverty—the poor trio was complete.
Precious friends he had made after entering Romance Academy. When he was with them, Hwang Jin-woo could forget his harsh reality and simply laugh.
"Ah, Jin-woo... congratulations."
"Huh? For what?"
"The scholarship... you got it."
"...What? Really?"
"For real?! Jin-woo! Congratulations!"
What was this about? As he blinked in confusion, Kaite pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket. It bore the signature of Instructor Charles Teddybear and the bold heading Scholarship Recipient List.
"Lee Jin-woo... Park Jin-woo... Hwang Jin-woo! It's really you!"
"But my grades were barely enough...?"
"I heard the church increased its donations... so they expanded the scholarship list... and pulled more names from the rejected pool..."
"Ha, haha!"
The scholarship. The very one he had longed for so desperately. The reason he had sacrificed sleep to study every night. The reason he had accepted that bizarre request to harass Namgung Min.
It wasn't a fortune, but one million won would arrive each month for the next six months. That alone would cover half his rent and make life far easier. He could cut back on loading jobs, part-time work, and box-folding, and devote more time to studying...!
"You got lucky, Jin-woo!"
"Lucky... yeah."
"Luck. Right. Luck..."
"Ha... ha..."
Perhaps. Perhaps those words had been true. Maybe the wealth luck that had been hidden all this time was finally bursting forth. A bonus, a department-store gift certificate, and now a scholarship. The fortune Namgung Min had given him—the one he had written off as pleasant nonsense—kept echoing in his mind.
But right now, more than anything else—
"Today it's on me! Chicken party!"
"Karaage! I love karaage!"
"Sasaki, it's chicken, not karaage..."
"What's the difference?! Jin-woo's treating!"
"...Yeah."
He simply wanted to savor the joy. That his life was finally turning around. That his efforts would be rewarded. That he would definitely graduate from this academy and become rich. That today was one step closer to that future.
Namgung Min... the incredible fortune teller...
Every time he had looked into the man, he had heard the phrase "incredible fortune teller." If the rumors that his readings were practically prophecies were true?
If the wealth-luck reading was as accurate as his insight into someone he had never met before?
The first bonus could be coincidence. But a department-store gift certificate and a scholarship on top of that—could all of it really be coincidence?
...Today he would get a proper reading.
Not just for me, but for Kaede and Kaite too...
Thug behavior? Spreading bad reviews? He had taken the money, so he had to follow through. He would. But...
There's no harm in getting a reading first, right?
Hwang Jin-woo clenched his fist. Once afternoon classes ended, he could visit the fortune-telling shop. Just knowing that gave him a small spark of hope.